Too connected?

Is it possible to be TOO CONNECTED? With all the social media at our fingertips, do we think that everything we think, feel and do is something to be shared?


I will be the first to admit...I am addicted to Facebook and my texting. If you take me to a place where I can't send or receive a text I will probably settle down eventually but until I have signal again and there is the POSSIBILITY that I can get a text, I am discombobulated. I accept this about myself but in this recent, thought provoking state I am in lately, I've begun to wonder if we are "too connected"?


Facebook status read things like "I had a cheeseburger for lunch" or "At the pool" or any of those little statements that don't really mean anything but we feel the need to share our every movement with the world kind of make me laugh. I understand the need to not feel like your alone and this type of interaction, this constant barrage of information that comes at us 24/7 makes us feel like we aren't alone.


Maybe that's what social networking is really about...not being alone. To try to make us feel more connected to a bigger piece of the pie than what we have. I had a conversation with a person just getting ready to leave home for the first time and she is moving away from her family and all her friends and we talked about how great Facebook (FB) is for helping a person feel connected to so many people with just the click of a button. How easy it is to get a update on a person's life, see photo's, check out their mood, see there world in just seconds. How for someone leaving their entire social network in another state can survive with FB and her cell phone.

I love that Pink song - Glitter in the Air. It's such a great song on so many levels but the particular line I can't get out of my head is when she says "have you ever hated your self for staring at the phone, your whole life waiting on the ring to prove you're not alone" I can't get that line out of my head. How many of us do that. How many of us wait for that acknowledgement to prove that we matter, that we are somebody, that our very existence on this earth means something...that it matters to someone else that we are here? Waiting on the ring to prove we aren't alone.....isn't that what Twitter, FB and all these sites are about. For people to have a tool that makes them feel connected 24/7?

There was some survey that said the first thing a woman does in the morning before anything else it to check FB. I laughed at that stat but realized I don't know that I would want to go an entire day without checking my own FB. I tried a test one time to NOT update my status and see how long before anyone noticed. I was like SOMEONE will notice...someone will comment. I also decided I wasn't going to be the first to text someone...I wanted to see how long before they contacted me...and you know what....almost 24 full hours passed without anyone commenting on my non-updated FB status and not one single text came in. It made me think...it made me really ponder why I feel the need to be so connected to people, things and status updates. Who does it really matter to? Clearly it's just me....I mean really, I participate in this social networking tool by choice...same with texting. It's become my main form of communication with some of my friends.

Does it mean I spend less physical time with people? No, it actually feels like it increases my connection. I feel like I can say things in words much easier than I can in person. Sometimes I just have to say something and get it out of my head and continue doing what I am doing and texting allows me to do that......can it become a way of life? Does it replace a personal connection? I suppose it can but what is the value in that?

So....it begs the question.....are we too connected? Is the need for knowledge and information taking over our relationships?